He told a recent conference on preventing prostitution and drug addiction that this year’s number of reported addicts in the city rose by 25.16 percent to reach 2,417. Of the total, 757 were new addicts who were reported for the first time and 484 had relapsed into the old habit, Tam said. The rest or nearly half of the total came from other provinces and cities nationwide making policing complicated, he added. The Deputy head of the department’s Social Evils Prevention Division, Le Van Quy, said that only 27 out of 127 spots of prostitution and drug trade in the city had been eliminated since the beginning of the year. The management of and support for former addicts reintegrated into society remained poor as more than 1,600 out of 2,200 detoxified addicts left their localities and did not report to local authorities. Nearly 70 percent of rehabilitated addicts were assisted in finding jobs with monthly incomes ranging from VND800,000 to VND2 million (US$44-110), yet most … [Read more...]

He made the statement at a two-day seminar on building models to prevent HIV transmission and reduce its harms and experimentally helping sex workers to reintegrate into society in 20 cities and provinces, that closed in Ho Chi Minh City on April 28. Dr Duong Van Dat, in charge of the United Nations Population Fund Vietnam reproductive health programme, suggested the building of a legal system and practical action programmes to reduce HIV/AIDS impact. Regional UNFPA advisor Julia Cabassi spoke of elements to ensure the success in HIV prevention and treatment and care for HIV positive people. The Social Evils Prevention and Control Department said the nation has successfully carried out a prostitution prevention model project, helping sex workers to reintegrate into the society and preventing and controlling prostitution and HIV/AIDS transmission. At present, HIV-positive female sex workers form the third largest group after drug users and homosexual groups with the highest rates … [Read more...]

“Youth for a drug free world” campaign launched Fight against drug-related crimes reviewed Awareness on HIV/AIDS pandemic discussed Speaking at a conference held in Hanoi on February 22 by the National Committee for the Prevention and Control of AIDS, Drugs and Prostitution, Mr Phuc stressed the need to evaluate the real situation and propose appropriate measures against social evils. He asked agencies at all levels to deal strictly with drug-related crime, develop community-based detoxification programs and create jobs for former drug users. The Deputy PM asked ministries and functional agencies to replicate the methadone detoxification treatment model and launch campaigns to stamp out prostitution. Participants at the conference suggested promoting the dissemination of information to raise public awareness of the danger of HIV/AIDS, drug addiction, and prostitution. They were told that, in 2011, Vietnam detected 14,125 people infected with HIV and 6,432 AIDS … [Read more...]

These short-term contracts, de facto prostitution agreements, legalize both domestic and overseas business trips by the girls and their clients, said Le Duc Hien, Vice Head of the Department of Social Evil Prevention under the MoLISA. Many female attendants have been also lured to border areas between Vietnam and China, as well as Cambodia, to meet the increasing demand for prostitution there, Hien said at a press briefing in Hanoi on March 1. Given this, the Vietnamese government has allocated VND25 billion for 41 provinces to fight this social evil in 2012. The money is part of a VND600 billion package for the anti-prostitution program between 2011 and 2015. In the struggle against prostitution, emphasis will be put on education and public awareness to change behaviours and lifestyles in each individual and family, with the aim of building a strong consensus in society, said Nguyen Van Minh, head of the Department for Social Evil Prevention. According to statistics by the department, … [Read more...]

Social evils prevention and control under review Hanoi to take drastic action on drug abuse and prostitution Joining hands to combat drug addition The event was jointly held by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). It aimed to evaluate results of the “Technical Assistance for Treatment and Rehabilitation at Institutional and Community Levels” (VIEH68) and “Drug Abuse Prevention Among Ethnic Minorities in Vietnam” (VIEH61) projects. Project VIEH68 was implemented in four northwestern provinces, Dien Bien, Lao Cai, Yen Bai and Son La, to prevent the escalation of drug addiction and minimize its negative impact on ethnic minority people. The four-year project has helped ethnic groups raise awareness of drug abuse prevention, and increased the capacity of local authorities. Project VIEH61 improved the effectiveness of detoxification and rehabilitation centres and helped prevent … [Read more...]

Model’s prostitution ring indicted Beauty queen arrested for running celebrity sex ring According to the Social Evils Prevention Department under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA), Vietnam currently has more than 30,000 sex workers, mostly in big cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho and Vung Tau. The number of prostitutes is escalating for lack of strict regulations and complicated services in secret brothels, bars and public places. Meanwhile, there is growing concern over human trafficking in border areas between Vietnam and China. Since the beginning of this year, border guards have detected 133 cases of human trafficking cases involving 158 persons and rescued 177 victims, including 16 children. About 200 Vietnamese sex workers are reportedly operating mostly at gambling centres in border areas near Cambodia. … [Read more...]

Social evils prevention and control under review Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Chairman of the National Committee on AIDS, Drugs and Prostitution Prevention and Control, made this remark at the September 7 conference to review work in this field during the first half of this year and devise key tasks for the second half. In his speech, Deputy PM Phuc emphasised controlling and preventing AIDS, illegal drugs and prostitution as a key task in the country’s socio-economic development that is always captures the attention of the Party and State. Mr Phuc praised the local steering committees in 63 provinces and cities for effectively implementing prevention and control activities and intensifying the dissemination of relevant information. For the remaining months of the year, Mr Phuc requested ministries, sectors and localities to carry out Party guidelines and State laws on AIDS, drug and prostitution prevention and control. He also asked international donors and … [Read more...]

"The current definition of prostitution does not cover new activities, such as prostitution among the same sex or transgender people," Nguyen Trong Dam, Deputy Minister of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, has said. Speaking at the meeting held on August 21 reviewing social-evil prevention activities in the first eight months of the year, Dam said the problem was due to limited funds and a lack of policies to help prostitutes re-enter the community. Only 31 out of Vietnam's 63 provinces and major cities have set up opium treatment programmes, which include withdrawal from the drug and post-treatment. Only nine provinces have offered full treatment to 5,000 of the total number of 205,000 opium addicts in the country. "Local authorities have not paid enough attention to this programme, but they have also had financial difficulties," Dam said. At the meeting, delegates from Hanoi, HCM City, the southern province of Khanh Hoa and northern province of Bac Giang spoke about the … [Read more...]

A training course on drug prevention and control for youth union leaders from the Northwestern region was organized by the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union Central Committee and Yen Bai provincial Youth Union on December 7th and 8th. The participants included 60 youth union leaders from Yen Bai, Son La, Lao Cai, Dien Bien, Hoa Binh and Phu Tho provinces. Drug addiction in Vietnam is increasing, seriously affecting socio-economic development, and the security and order of the country, particularly negatively affected teenagers and adolescents, who are more easily influenced and seduced. According to Senior Lieutenant Colonel Le Tien Trung from the Police Department for Investigation of Drug-related Crimes under the Ministry of Public Security, drug addiction in Vietnam continues to increase. As of September 2015, the whole country has more than 204,000 drug addicts managed by the police force, an increase of nearly 23 thousand people (12%) compared to the end of 2013. Results of drug … [Read more...]

VietNamNet Bridge – Despite difficulties in its implementation, Viet Nam is utterly resolute in its plan to scale up the number of facilities that provide voluntary and diversified services of treatment to 200,000 drug addicts by 2020. A community drug rehabilitation centre in HCM City. -- Illustrative image — Photo cainghien.vn “Our principle is to use many different methods of drug addiction treatment, but aiming toward voluntary treatment,” Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Trong Dam said at conference to collect opinions for a draft of a decree on voluntary treatment for addicts held late last week. Addicts, who are brought to establishments providing compulsory treatment, fail in voluntary community-based treatment, Dam said. The push to boost drug rehabilitation solutions comes amid several recent high-profile escapes by patients at compulsory rehab facilities. Last month, about 600 patients broke out of a … [Read more...]

HCM CITY - Despite difficulties in its implementation, Việt Nam is utterly resolute in its plan to scale up the number of facilities that provide voluntary and diversified services of treatment to 200,000 drug addicts by 2020. "Our principle is to use many different methods of drug addiction treatment, but aiming toward voluntary treatment," Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyễn Trọng Đàm said at conference to collect opinions for a draft of a decree on voluntary treatment for addicts held late last week. Addicts, who are brought to establishments providing compulsory treatment, fail in voluntary community-based treatment, Đàm said. The push to boost drug rehabilitation solutions comes amid several recent high-profile escapes by patients at compulsory rehab facilities. Last month, about 600 patients broke out of a facility in Đồng Nai Province. Government authorities said some facilities suffer from overcrowding, a lack of staff and poor conditions. "The … [Read more...]

HCM CITY - Labour departments in provinces and cities will continue to work with local authorities to carry out community-based social evils prevention in an aim to eliminate sales of recreational drugs and prostitution in wards and communes. At a conference reviewing prevention activities over the last 10 years, Lê Minh Tấn, deputy head of the central Department of Prevention for Social Evils under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), said that prostitution and drug use and sales were becoming more prevalent in communes and wards throughout the country. Some areas have been able to eliminate the activities, but prostitution and drug use had often re-emerged, he said. A report by the MOLISA, which was released during a conference in Hà Nội yesterday, showed that 2,818 communes and nationwide have no drug abuse. Meanwhile, 8,659 communes and wards have eradicated prostitution, and 3,556 communes, wards and towns successfully eliminate drug and prostitution, … [Read more...]

Currently, the city has nearly 12,000 drug addicts with stable residence, 2,277 of whom are engaging in the model, including 905 people voluntarily taking detoxification treatment in their family, according to the department. The city has set up 52 consultation posts in 16 out of its 24 districts, which have given advice to more than 4,580 drug addicts. Localities across the city reported they have received back 3,750 former addicts, and helped 2,430 of them find jobs with stable income. However, localities also pointed to a number of difficulties during the implementation of the model, including lack of cooperation from addicts’ families and a high risk of relapsing. Tran Ngoc Du from the Sub-Department for Social Evil Prevention, added that most localities do not yet to have standardized facilities to treat withdrawal symptoms. In the coming time, the city plans to diversify communications on drug detoxification while working with districts to maintain and expand the … [Read more...]

North welcoming cold air while central and central highlands facing rains The National Hydrology Meteorology Forecast Center yesterday warned that a cold front is currently moving from the northern region to the southeastern region which caused the appearance of tropical converge sweeping through the mid central and south central region. In addition, the ongoing cold air in companied with the powerful operation of the southwest monsoon and low pressure zone in the southern territorial water of Paracel Island have brought medium-heavy rains on the large scale in the central provinces from Nghe An to Quang Ngai on the large scale by tonight. Because of the influence of the four complicated weather patterns, both the Central Highlands and southern provinces will continue experiencing medium-heavy rains in the next two or three days. The highest daytime temperature in Ho Chi Minh City will be measured at 24- 31 degrees. By tonight, a flood is forecast to sweep through local rivers from … [Read more...]

The province targets getting 100 percent of addicts undergo detox by 2020; with at least 70 percent receiving home- and community-based treatment. In 2013, An Cuu precinct, Hue city was selected to pilot a programme on establishing a consultation unit to get the community and addicts’ families involved in treatment. Under the programme, the precinct established a detoxification centre which coordinated with the local administration, mass organisations and addicts’ families to encourage the addicts to get treatment. The model also helped post-detoxification addicts receive vocational training, loans, find jobs and improve their living conditions as well as preventing them from relapsing. The programme helped 14 out of 18 addicts in the precinct successfully detoxify. Following An Cuu, 41 out of the 65 precincts and communes in the province have set up similar units. Thanks to the models, 728 drug users in the province were weaned off drug abuse thanks to … [Read more...]

Vietnam has more than 100,000 sex workers, many of whom have to work more than 12 hours a day, the Vietnamese chapter of the International Labor Organization (ILO) said Friday, citing its statistics. Vietnam has more than 100,000 sex workers, many of whom have to work more than 12 hours a day, the Vietnamese chapter of the International Labor Organization (ILO) said Friday, citing its statistics. Of these sex workers, some 72,000 are prostitutes, according to the ILO Vietnam figures, released at a conference held by the social evils prevention department under Vietnam’s Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs. The social affairs ministry admitted at the meeting that Vietnam has more than 160,000 establishments offering ‘sensitive services,’ with hundreds of thousands of laborers who are forced to have sex with their customers. The ILO research was conducted via in-depth interviews with men, women and transgender people who do prostitution, as well as owners … [Read more...]

Businesses Trained in Fines on Customs Administration Violations The General Department of Vietnam Customs and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) organised a training course on the implementation of Decree 45/2016/ND-CP of the Government on sanctions against administrative violations in customs for businesses in Hanoi on August 23. Decree 45/2016/ND-CP dated May 26, 2016 amended and supplemented some articles of Decree 127/2013/ND-CP of the Government dated October 15, 2013 on fines on administrative violations and coercive enforcement of administrative decisions in customs. Speaking at the training course, Mr Vu Van Hai, Deputy Director of the Department of Legal Affairs under the General Department of Vietnam Customs, introduced new points in Decree 45 to enterprises. Specifically, in the group of acts of violations in customs and tax inspection stipulated in Article 10, the Decree adds some acts such as “unauthorised access, falsification and customs … [Read more...]

Viet Nam News HCM CITY - The HCM City Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs has said it will step up checks of service establishments that are likely to surreptitiously employ sex workers to combat prostitution. It said in a report there were 34 roads with such establishments as well as sex workers soliciting on the street in the first half of this year. It collaborated with the police and other agencies to uncover 63 cases and stop prostitution on 11 of the streets. They are in Bình Tân, Phú Nhuận, Bình Thạnh, and Thủ Đức districts. Speaking at a workshop to review efforts to crack down on prostitution in the first six months, Lê Văn Quý, deputy head of the department's Social Evils Prevention Division, said the laws have not kept pace with the changes in society. For instance, he said, male and gay prostitution and activities to arouse sexual desires, which are common in restaurants, bars, and other establishments, are still not crimes. Rehabilitation efforts have … [Read more...]

Thousands of workers back to work after strike at Korean firm Over 1,500 workers at Panko Company, a subsidiary of South Korean Panko Group, returned to work this morning after four days of a strike for higher payment in Tam Ky city, the central province of Quang Nam. The workers went on strike on July 9 after three months of working because the company paid them lower than promised wages. Specifically, the salary was only VND2.7-3.1 million per worker a month instead of VND4 million (US$180) as per its recruitment announcement. In addition, Panko Company did not assist workers with accommodation and lunch allowance as the announcement. The workers came back to work after the company agreed to conduct four commitments, which have been reached after the Quang Nam Province Labor Union worked with the company and worker representatives. First, the company will increase lunch allowance from VND11,500 to VND15,000 a worker and improve the menu. Second, it will review working ability and … [Read more...]

HCM CITY - The methadone detoxication programme in HCM City has had the desired effect and contributed to security and social order, the city People's Committee has reported. The pilot programme began in 2008 and now includes 19 methadone treatment centres across the city, where a total of 4,029 patients have been treated, the city's HIV/AIDS Prevention Committee reported on Monday. Trần Ngọc Du, director of the city Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affair's Social Evils Prevention Department, said the current number of methadone treatment patients only constitute half the targeted number. The city plans to set up three more centres in late 2016, to accommodate an additional 1,500 patients. Nguyễn Thị Hồng Phượng, director of the Consultative and Drug Rehabilitation Centre under the city's Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Department, said the facility had treated 359 drug addicts during two years ( May, 2014 - May, 2016). At present, 287 patients are being treated at … [Read more...]